Brett Johnson [00:00:00]:
Looking Forward Our Way podcast addresses today's critical issues affecting those 50 and over in Ohio. We focus on issues that affect our money and our neighborhoods. Our expert guests are here to provide the information and resources we need to address these challenges. Hi. This is Brett. Back in 1975, the Central Ohio Radio Reading Service was created. The first such agency actually started by eligible recipients. Only 2 other reading services existed in the world at the time.
Brett Johnson [00:00:27]:
Now on the cusp of its 50th anniversary, the reading service renamed Voicecorps is serving over 120,000 people in Ohio. We're gonna welcome 2 guest experts with us from Voicecorps, Mark Jividen, executive director of Voicecorps, and Dana Sims, who is marketing and development director. Thank you both for being here.
Mark Jividen [00:00:44]:
Well, thank you so much for inviting us to be on your program today.
Dana Sims [00:00:48]:
Thank you for having us. Sure.
Carol Ventresca [00:00:50]:
It's wonderful to meet both of you, and, we are looking forward our way is at a remote location. We are here at the Voicecorps studio. So thanks also for accommodating us in our the recording. We want to get a lot of information about Voicecorps. But before we jump into that into the agency's work, Mark, tell us a little bit about your background, how you found a path to Voicecorps, and then we're gonna also hear from Dana.
Mark Jividen [00:01:18]:
Okay. Well, I started in broadcasting back back in well, before I got into college, but I worked for WOSU's, broadcast news department, the journalism department at Ohio State. One of the fellows there, was going to graduate and, asked if I'd like to work or take his place at, another radio station in town, which I did. And, that was the North American broadcast stations in Columbus, and the primary station at that time was WMNI. So I started working there in 1971, and, you moved up the ranks, and, actually retired from there about 10 or 11 years ago. But, in the meantime, folks at Voice Corps, at the time it was called COREs, the Central Ohio Radio Reading Service, heard of me. I had been an industry adviser to Ohio State School of Journalism and to the Columbus City School's broadcasting program out at Fort Hayes. And so I became an industry adviser in 1982 or 3 to Voice Corps.
Mark Jividen [00:02:30]:
I've been on and off the board of directors since that time. About 10 years ago, the current, executive director at the time, wanted to retire. They created a a committee of 3 people to hire a new executive director. Well, we quickly determined that we, didn't know what she did, really. And so so I said, look, fellas. I'm, you know, I'm semi retired, so I'll I'll go in and just observe her. Well, the next thing I know, she was gone. I was having so much fun that I became the interim director, and then finally said, fellas, or I don't know, there might have been some ladies on the committee.
Mark Jividen [00:03:15]:
No. There were only 2 guys. You know, I'll I'll just take it. So that's how I got here. So
Carol Ventresca [00:03:23]:
That's not an uncommon path in nonprofit, is it, David?
Mark Jividen [00:03:27]:
No. True. Well, I you know, I've always I've always thought that, the mission here, the things we do are very important to people. You know, we're not quite as well known, as, you know, many other nonprofits, and we're certainly not as big as they are. But I think what we do to serve those who are blind, have low vision, might have another reason or so that they can't use, standard printed material. Maybe it's something like dyslexia or they have Parkinson's disease that that that causes them to shake, and so they can't hold the material still enough to be able to really focus in on it. We're very, busy in in our service with, veterans. We have a lot of veterans that, you know, have lost a limb or whatever the course may be.
Mark Jividen [00:04:21]:
And, so we we serve a wide variety of people that just can't use standard materials.
Carol Ventresca [00:04:28]:
Wonderful. Thank you so much. Dana, tell us a little bit about your journey.
Dana Sims [00:04:33]:
Well, Voicecorps came at the right time in my life. I have master's degree in marketing and communications and then many decades of corporate and nonprofit marketing and communications experience in many different industries. COVID happened and I really needed to reprioritize what mattered to me most, what was important, really what impact I wanted to make. I've always had a spirit of advocacy for helping those that have been, medically vulnerable or even being an advocate for those who are unable to advocate for themselves. And seeing this opportunity at Voicecorps, my first conversation with Mark, I knew this is really where I wanted to be. I wanted to bring all of my years of experience, my talents, my energy into this space to uplift people that really deserve the same information equity that sighted people have every day. Wonderful.
Carol Ventresca [00:05:38]:
Thank you so much.
Brett Johnson [00:05:39]:
Now, Mark, I wanna go back. So let's go back in time, probably 1974, maybe 1973. I read earlier that, you know, Voicecorps was put together by eligible recipients. Can you talk about the creation of Voicecorps, the value it provides to the community? Yeah. How did that start? I mean, you've got the recipients that decided, we've got a problem here. We're gonna fix it. How did it begin?
Mark Jividen [00:06:05]:
Talking books is a common term for, at the time, transcriptions, the old vinyl records. Before that, there were acetate or glass. And, back in the very early thirties, there was a big push on, in part due to, the, you know, the end of the depression and and public works. And they started pushing the idea of talking books at the time, again, on transcription records and the building of of special record players at the time to put materials onto onto discs so that they were accessible to, people who, again, were blind, army veterans and the like. So that had been going on for a long time. And then in in the fifties, there was this phenomenon that was background music, and all of the background music that was, piped into restaurants and elevators was coming by a hidden signal on FM radio stations. They call it a subcarrier. So there was a a a a time delay for publications.
Mark Jividen [00:07:20]:
If they was a new book or maybe a a newspaper or a magazine, they had to be recorded, and they had to be pressed on to records, and those records had to be sent out. So the blind community were not getting anything that was very timely at all. So there was 3 people here in Columbus, all blind themselves that thought, you know, we could use this technology for background music, and we could we could have a broadcast station, and we could read the newest newspapers every day in real time so that our people didn't have to wait to hear about the news or Time Magazine or was probably Look and Life Magazine, in those days. So it was a perfect marriage of being able to get information equity, as we would call it today, but get timely information out to the blind community. So they, went on the quest of, you know, putting this together. They got, quite a bit of support from the city of Columbus. Ohio State University's radio station cooperated with them and and, gave them a subcarrier, a hidden signal on their FM station at the time, and voila, Voice Corps came along. They went on the air November 17, 1975.
Mark Jividen [00:08:40]:
So we're about to begin our 50th year, which is amazing. We were, I believe, the 3rd system in the US. Certainly, we were the first one, in Columbus, and we were the very first one to be created by, you know, recipients of, of the service.
Carol Ventresca [00:09:01]:
Nice. That that's I can remember, the Voice Corps group from when I was growing up in Columbus and hearing this service given to individuals. And for the last few years, we've really heard more and more about how individuals are more isolated and vulnerable, particularly older folks, but I think people in general. Tell us how the development of a program like Voicecorps has helped create those connections. Individuals are not only more aware of issues in their community, but they're also aware of resources and connecting individuals to each other.
Mark Jividen [00:09:46]:
When Voicecorps or cores at the time first came on, there were there was a great prevalence of blindness among young persons. There were several disease the, diseases of youth that created a a rather large population. In fact, we had a and still do have a large state operated school for the blind, here in Columbus. At the time, there were just many people there, many more people going to that school than there are today. Well, most of those early life, diseases have been conquered. But there's many more people, that as they age, not only from from accidents, but, you know, war situations, but health related situations. Diabetes being the primary one that, does create, glaucoma, which then leads to blindness. You may see or hear advertising going on right now for, new, pharmaceuticals to fight what's called AMD, which is, age related macular degeneration, which, is becoming a real issue among the elderly pop population, and there are various varieties of it.
Mark Jividen [00:11:09]:
But one of the reasons for that is that people are living so long that they're outliving their eyes. And so we're we're seeing, we're seeing the population of those with vision issues, be becoming very much, very much larger, as, the senior citizens, move along in years. Point is, the audience that we serve and the audience that's most isolated these days tend to mirror the folks that are isolated because of their age. Society is somewhat different perhaps in the last 50 years, where, there's less family support for people who are older. They end to be they they, perhaps can live longer by themselves. So, again, all of these all of this kind of thing contributes to to isolation. And without the support groups that once were extremely, valuable, and I'm talking here about church organizations and local community organizations, which see, you know, seems some of those kinds of things have seemed to drift away over time. You know, we we we just have a a real problem, in this growing isolation.
Mark Jividen [00:12:28]:
And, you know, finally, the surgeon general just, you know, shortly after COVID named it to be a a critical, health issue for the country.
Brett Johnson [00:12:38]:
Alright. Dana, can you, address with your, you know, role of marketing and developing director some examples of information or resources that Voice Corp provides and, you know, has a direct impact on the clients.
Dana Sims [00:12:51]:
Certainly. So we are able to not just provide current, local, national news in a real in real time and give them the same information again that other people that are able to actually pick up and read the printed material are able to see. But something as simple as empowerment through having grocery ads read to them where they're able to know how to shop and really engender independence in a space where they otherwise may not be able to take ownership of their own finances or be able to direct their own personal shopping. Some something as simple as grocery shopping that I think some of us really may take for granted being able to flip through an app on our phone to know, oh, I'm gonna get a better deal at Kroger's than I am at Audi's this week. I definitely wanna go there. That we are able to help give that information to them, but also it's entertainment. It is a friendly voice. We've had volunteers that have been reading with us for decades.
Dana Sims [00:14:05]:
They have become friends by voice to so many of our listeners. That creates a sense of community for them as well. And then, excuse me, with the entertainment that we have, yes, it's news that's being read, but we also have some segments that are thinking about old time radio. I remember sitting with my grandfather and listening to radio programs as a little girl that were able to still provide that sense of excitement, that sense of vision for those that have a visual memory and then we're able to create programs really to provide a holistic news and information setting for for people.
Brett Johnson [00:14:56]:
Yeah. That's important. Especially, it goes hearkens back to my background in radio too that and and all of us that if you're used to listening to radio that you tune in to certain people every morning. It's that familiar voice that, it is what's quoted in a a rush song, a companion unobtrusive. You know, that sort of thing. It's just there. It's part of your day.
Carol Ventresca [00:15:18]:
Yeah. Wonderful. So I'm gonna go on another path here with a question. Like any good, wonderful nonprofit organization, you normally have a small staff and a huge number of volunteers. And, our shout out to all of the voice corps volunteers for all the wonderful work they've done, as you said, for decades. It's an important job that, they probably aren't even sure how much they are contributing to the welfare of other folks. But tell us a little bit about your volunteers. What do they do? What do they provide? What do they gain from volunteering? Then they're giving all of their time and expertise and maybe a little bit about how do you become a volunteer for Voice Corps.
Dana Sims [00:16:05]:
Sure thing. So our volunteers have a wide range of backgrounds from educators to lawyers, accountants, those that may not have had careers and were stay at home parents. So they come to us from a number of different places and spaces in their lives and it's simple as reading. Yes. We have a small audition process and I'm doing air quotes here because it's just making certain someone is able to speak clearly, able to read the printed words so that it comes across clear to the listeners. Obviously, we want to make sure that our listeners have the experience that, they deserve and that they expect and our volunteers want to make certain that they're able to provide that as well. So our volunteers do come from a wide range of backgrounds, and it's reading in our studio. Because of COVID, our readers, our volunteers were able to read from the comfort of their homes too, but their comfort with what they're reading and they're able to take as much time to prepare as they'd like just to let it flow.
Dana Sims [00:17:29]:
But one wonderful thing about voice core is that we edit and someone can have a trip over a word or 2, like I'm certain I'm doing today and all of a sudden, it's perfect. So our teachers, retired teachers, sound like experts when they're reading. And what the experience means to them, why do they keep coming back, is because they know that they are adding value to someone's life. And truly, that is the reason why our volunteers are as dedicated as they are. It is not because we're able to provide anything other than a very heartfelt thanks and exceptional appreciation, it's them knowing the impact that they're making. And truly, we are always looking for volunteers when the seasons hit and as our volunteers go on vacations, sometimes we just may need more are looking towards the future of offerings for our listeners. The more volunteers we have, the more opportunities we have to expand what our listeners can hear. Almost 200 volunteers right now and we record over 10000 hours of of listening material every year.
Carol Ventresca [00:19:11]:
I'm gonna ask a question that's off script, and so Brett can take this out if it doesn't make any sense. Dana, with the changes in technology, and we're gonna talk a little bit more about that in in a minute, are volunteers, do they have to be central Ohio based, or can they be from anywhere?
Dana Sims [00:19:31]:
They really can be anywhere. Okay. Because there are volunteers that certainly, if they are used to, excuse me, reading the Columbus Dispatch and they have a time that they read the Columbus Dispatch every day, we have digital versions of the Columbus Dispatch so if someone wants to be on holiday with their toes in the sand in Florida and they still wanna read, they can still do that. It's a matter of the sound quality of course, but we want to make certain that we encourage our volunteers to think about 1, you know, work life balance or volunteer life balance, but then also that we wanna make this accessible and not burdensome on them. So, yes, we do have volunteers, that are able to not be in Central Ohio, and actually, I've had people that have asked me about volunteering to be able to read from outside of the state.
Mark Jividen [00:20:32]:
We have a program that's read by a volunteer in in Paris. We have one that's read by a person in in in Pittsburgh, and we have one that the one they were just talking about today, I heard in the hallway, someone had not yet sent it to their program from Florida that they were waiting for. So, yes, you can you can do that from really anywhere with technology. And speaking of technology, we are so fortunate at this time in history where most, if not many, people have computers. They have cell phones. And interestingly enough, those devices are very good recording, devices. They can produce, good good quality material, and it can then be emailed or dropboxed to us here in Columbus. What we have done with, most of our folks well, we certainly have told them when a volunteer comes aboard, what kind of equipment they might want.
Mark Jividen [00:21:31]:
And if they'd like to go buy their own microphone and headset, we have given them several, different devices that we think work well with home systems. But we also provide, headset mics to those that need them, and, they are of of great quality. Surprisingly enough, they don't cost too much. But, you know, oftentimes, the volunteer very good programming quality with the equipment that's now available out there and and at the most, might have to add a good quality microphone. I
Carol Ventresca [00:22:10]:
I I wanna just add one more question about volunteers. I'm assuming that most of your volunteers are likely older because they have a more flexible schedule. But do you have opportunities that a younger person might jump in and wanna do, especially somebody who's looking at going into broadcasting? Great experience.
Dana Sims [00:22:30]:
Glad you asked that question. We actually just had a conversation amongst the staff this week, really revisiting what those opportunities and possibly, excuse me, creating some programs could look like for younger people whether it's volunteering for youth groups or as you had mentioned, someone that could be interested in in programming. What could volunteer opportunities look like? Whether it's the programmatic side, operation side, or even with reading and volunteering. So I would say and I hope I'm not speaking out of turn that anyone that's interested in volunteering, we definitely wanna hear from you, and we want to make certain that we're recognizing the interest and trying to find a place for all of the voices that wanna be a part of
Mark Jividen [00:23:22]:
Right.
Dana Sims [00:23:23]:
Our family.
Carol Ventresca [00:23:23]:
Right. Great. Okay. Thank you.
Brett Johnson [00:23:25]:
Yeah. I I think, coming from the podcast world, although my background is radio as Mark knows, Mark and I used to work together at said radio station WMNI for many, many years. But I felt through the pandemic that technology and even just equipment, kind of put on steroids what was available and what could happen because of the lack of we just couldn't be together. So we had to figure out how to be apart and communicate and such. So can you address what the agency, you know, continued to to how it grew? Did it grow leaps and bounds using technology? Even the programming end of it too, did it did you see a change because of it and maybe felt that looking back now, we may not have done that because but but we had the opportunity. We you know, we're taking lemons and making lemonade out of it. It was actually turned it into a positive, growth period that may not have happened for another 5, 10 years.
Mark Jividen [00:24:22]:
Well, as as I mentioned a moment ago, we, you know, we do have people that record at home. And and and prior to COVID, we only had, you know, a handful of programs that were recorded outside our studios where we do have 7 studios. I believe that's the count. We're in the middle of some construction here, and I lose well, I can't can't remember what I had for breakfast. But at but, at any rate, no none of our programming virtually was done outside the actual studios, here at Voicecorps. But we learned very quickly, found very quickly the kinds of equipment and the ways that we could have, material recorded at people's homes because of the isolation. We we did have people that that came in here. As a matter of fact, every day, there are, what is it, Dana, 6 people that come in to record the dispatch and the Wall Street Journal, in in teams of 2.
Mark Jividen [00:25:24]:
And and at that time and that continued through COVID. But we have we had ultraviolet light, you know, debacterializing machines, and all kinds of things that were going on here. But by and large, we quickly we quickly skipped to a, you know, an at home kinda remote recording. And you're right. It was it was, I I hadn't thought a lot about it, but digital technology, the, advent. I mean, the iPhone's only been around since 2,005 or so. So, you know, it's not been around a very long time. And so when the need was there, we were able to adapt items that may have just come on the market.
Mark Jividen [00:26:07]:
As I said, inexpensive but but but really good sounding headset microphones, were became available. I mean, and and, you know, we didn't sound as though we were our people were talking in some kind of a tube or, you know, they sound very good. So, yes, those kinds of things came along. We were able to jump to it. We did not miss a single Columbus dispatch program when COVID hit. Everything was shut down everything. I say everything. Most of the country shut shut down on March 20, 2020.
Mark Jividen [00:26:45]:
That was the day the the state closed the universities, and many very shortly thereafter, most things shut down, including much of the city. But we didn't miss anything. We were on every day. We're on every day, and and we even read the dispatch live on Christmas day. We have people that come in here and always have on New Year's Day, Thanksgiving morning, you name the holiday, they're here. Dedicated volunteers, staff that doesn't mind working the holidays, and we didn't miss anything during COVID. We're very proud of that.
Brett Johnson [00:27:20]:
Can you let's go a little bit. I wanna go back to not go back to Vanessa, but kinda tear this apart. I wanna know how the sausage is made. So you talked about going live or recording. How how does this stuff happen? How does when people read, is it recorded and then sent out? Or are they doing it live? Or is it a combination of both? How what's the magic behind it? Let's put it that way.
Mark Jividen [00:27:41]:
Well, generally speaking, I mean, we have live capability here. There's no question about it. And as I shared earlier, beginning at 7 AM every morning, we start, with a crew of 2 readers doing the Wall Street Journal and other business news for a full hour. At 8 o'clock, 2 more people sit down, and they're prepared with the dispatch. They read national and international news from 8 to 9. At 9 o'clock, 2 more people sit down in the studio, and they read, the well, the obits are read at just right after the 9 o'clock hour. So you'll hear them about 9:0:5. And then so we're we're doing local and and, you know, Columbus area news, lifestyle news, and that kind of thing happens then.
Mark Jividen [00:28:31]:
And we continue to read the dispatch live until 10:30. But after that, generally speaking, it's prerecorded. We're on the air a 168 hours a week, and for the convenience of the volunteers and as, Dana mentioned, the quality of the material that we do, it's it's all prerecorded. We store it here on our audio servers or folks recorded at home, and they send it into us, via, various methods, but it's sent here to us. Our technicians then, look at that material, whether it's recorded here or recorded remotely, check the levels, do whatever QC is necessary. If there are gaps, they fix that, and get it ready to go. Most programs are in either half hour, lengths or full hour lengths. If they're a half hour, they're actually 27 minutes and 30 seconds, because we do run a couple of PSAs and the weather, after the programs.
Mark Jividen [00:29:32]:
And hour long programs are 57:30, with a couple of minutes to, to do the weather and IDs and perhaps make announcements for, the folks that they need to hear, bulletin boards and and that kind of thing. But that's how the sausage is made. We have, you know, we have a lot of really wonderful equipment here. We're in the middle of well, long story short, this is the 3rd, perhaps 4th iteration of of equipment technology with Kors. The the Kors went on the air in 75. There was a rebuild, in the eighties when they went to all transistors and other kinds of things. And we moved to this location in 97 for a net another generation of equipment. And for the last, I don't know, 5 to 8 years, we were holding that equipment together with Scotch tape.
Mark Jividen [00:30:25]:
Many of the components well, it was good equipment, but many of the components just were no longer available. And so we've recently and we're right in the middle of of upgrading the equipment to a completely digital operation, new consoles, you know, the whole the whole plant is basically, being renewed, and it should be good for another 20 years, we hope. And we're very grateful, to, being able to, obtain the funds to do that, which was which is actually in the 6 figure, number. But over the last 6 years, in the last that would be the last three state capital budget allocations. We were provided, portions of the money to do this, as well as, support from, you know, our local agencies, the foundations like the Columbus Foundation, and others to be able to put together enough money to be able to buy all of the equipment. And again, we've been collecting the equipment for, oh, at least a solid 2 years until we've, you know, put it all together to the point that we can actually install it. Mhmm. Yeah.
Mark Jividen [00:31:38]:
K.
Carol Ventresca [00:31:39]:
So when I was reviewing the website, I noticed that the programming is divided into 2 categories, kind of the regular schedule and a listening on demand. Is that the difference in terms of what's happening live and what you've recorded to for listeners to hear later on? Or what are the differences between those two categories of programming?
Mark Jividen [00:32:04]:
Well, the nice thing about it and and listening on demand is the old term for podcasting. We began streaming our programming and recording our programming in 2001. So by 2001, a person could use their home computer and, you know, listen to us live. And we also had material that we recorded, and we have on our website the ability that a person can listen from there. And so that's called listening on demand. So if you go there, nearly all of the programming that we do, whether it's recorded or live, is available on our website by just clicking on it and listening. We're in the process right now, and it's a slow one, that we're moving over to a podcasting platform. So that rather than having to physically, go to our website and click on something to listen to, which is, you know, is convenient, it'll also be available in a in a in a podcasting format so that a person will be able to subscribe to a favorite program, a favorite magazine, whatever it might be, that we, produce, and they'll be able then to have it automatically downloaded to their cell phone or to their computer so that they can listen to it in a podcasting kind of format.
Mark Jividen [00:33:26]:
But in effect, it's the same thing. It's recorded, and it's stored on somebody's server like ours is. But the the secret sauce with podcasting is that you've got a podcasting program on your phone or on your, or on your home computer that knows, goes out and finds the things that you're familiar or that you're most interested in, and it downloads them automatically for you. So that's the, again, that's the secret sauce.
Brett Johnson [00:33:56]:
Wonderful. Good. So voice core has an extensive list of items that it provides to listeners, the the the material you read. And and, as we came in, Mark gave us a little tour and, you know, it's a whole room full of magazines and such. And that includes like fitness and Vogue. But does the audience help determine what's gonna be read in some new materials that may be ingested? I mean, can they suggest, hey, this brand new magazine, this is really kinda cool. Can you put it on the the the wish list?
Dana Sims [00:34:27]:
So we would absolutely love to hear from all of our listeners any ideas for additional programming, something that they know is out there that they would love to hear or possibly, especially for those that are recent with losing their sight, materials that they've interacted with in the past that they just know, hey. This would be great for me, but not just for me, but for my community, for the people that are in my assisted living. So with that in mind, we do have an active listener response line and listener feedback line where we gladly take any suggestions and would go through the steps to do our due diligence to procure any necessary rights and authorizations to be able to put items on the air, but really listening to our listeners is is key for that. So if we have listeners listening to this or advocates of listeners, by all means, reach out to us directly. It's not going to happen within a week, but we need to know what is wanted in order to be able to pipeline it.
Carol Ventresca [00:35:48]:
Good. Wonderful. Mark, we've touched a little bit about, the equipments and software that someone would need to become a listener of voice core, but let's give them some specifics. If someone calls and says, you know, I wanna listen to your programs, but I don't I'm not tech savvy. I don't know what to do. What do I need? And and how can I get up to speed?
Mark Jividen [00:36:13]:
Are you saying listening or recording for us?
Carol Ventresca [00:36:15]:
No. Audience. Listeners.
Mark Jividen [00:36:19]:
Listeners. Well, we have a live stream that is available on the website. It all it is also available through smart speakers. For instance, if a person wants to listen through an Alexa device, it's very simple. You just tell Alexa to play Voicecorps, and, it will come up. If for some reason it doesn't, you just tell it to load the Voicecorps application, and then she'll be smart enough to know You can always call here, and we'll tell you how to do it. But, it's really simple to get on the Internet and, listen to us in in in those ways. We're also available over the air within our coverage area, which, by the way, extends beyond Columbus.
Mark Jividen [00:37:03]:
We, cover all of Northwest Ohio. We cover all of south Southeast and Eastern Ohio. We have transmitters in Toledo, Mansfield, Columbus, Zanesville, Coshocton, Athens, and in Portsmouth. So, we cover a very large area of Ohio. And what is really great about it is that we're immediately available to folks over their television, believe it or not. If you, have an outside antenna, you'll find us on the TV stations as their point 7 virtual channel. So in Columbus, we are, partners with WOSU TV on channel 34. If you go to channel 34.7, you can receive us directly.
Mark Jividen [00:37:55]:
And in, the other markets, if you got a PBS station, just go there. Athens is channel 20, Cambridge is channel 44, and it's channel 25, and Toledo, just go to the point 7 and you get us there. Now if you're on cable, you would go to their Ohio channel. So it would be WOSU's Ohio channel, whatever it might be on your, your cable system, but it's called the Ohio channel, and you you touch on your remote control, you touch the SAP channel, which is, you know, like they do the other languages or description, which has become uncommon. But your remote control should have what's called a SAP, secondary audio program channel. And on the Ohio channel, we are the SAP. So you'll be able to get us there as well. But that's how you listen.
Mark Jividen [00:38:49]:
It's really simple. Now
Carol Ventresca [00:38:51]:
Let me let me also ask. Before you had talked about cell phones and mentioned iPhone, it they can have any cell phone. Is that correct? It could be Android or iPhone?
Mark Jividen [00:39:00]:
Yes. Mhmm. No problem. Just go to just bring up whatever the browser is. In the case of iPhone, that would be Safari. And, you can go to our our website and you'll find a listen live button, and you can listen from there. Now that's that's the way you do that. Now things are gonna be a little bit different when we get our podcasting up, and I won't go in deeply into that.
Mark Jividen [00:39:24]:
But, while we don't require people to sign up to receive our programming, we desperately want people to tell us they're listening. And the reason for that is primarily, makes our volunteers feel good. But our advertisers, not advertisers, supporters, you know, want to know what their money how effective their money is, as being used. And that's become much more prevalent in the last few years. So if we say we've you know, we're broadcasting, well, how many people listen? You know, what are you doing with my money? How effective is it? We need to, be able to, put before them, you know, not the full numbers of listeners, because we know we'll never know that. But anecdotally, we can say that, yes, we have, Billie. She lives in, Gallipolis, Ohio. She lives in Grove City.
Mark Jividen [00:40:18]:
She lives in Marysville, and whatever. We wouldn't use the full name, but we'd say, here's what she says, that she enjoys listening to, you know, Ladies Home Journal, you know, every week, or she likes listening to the local Marysville newspaper, which we do read. We read the Chillicothe newspaper, and and a myriad of other local newspapers. So we need to know that you're there. When we get to the podcasting area, we've got some some potential copyright and licensing issues there. So that's gonna be requiring a, a sign up, a formal sign up. But that'll be simple. Voicecorps has been and always will be will be free, to qualified listeners.
Mark Jividen [00:41:05]:
No problem at all. But it is intended for folks who do have low vision or some other organic, reason that they need to, or that they want to listen to us. And that's all that all has to do with copyright issues. As I was sharing earlier in the program, the existence of talking books, pre recorded books on on tape or on vinyl, that all came about because it was intended for use by the blind and low vision, and therefore, there is a, you know, a rule in the national cap copyright laws that, you know, we get special consideration for for copyright and being able to use other materials. So I'm kinda going down a rabbit hole with that. But, yes, we're free for now. You know, let us know, please. We we wanna know that you're there.
Brett Johnson [00:42:04]:
Yeah. So for volunteers, is there any, monetary assistance? Just think they wanna read, but they maybe just can't afford a headset or some technology. Is there a little bit of help to get them over the gap to to be able to do this?
Mark Jividen [00:42:18]:
Yeah. We do we do provide. We have a we we we have, been able to procure through, through donations, really, a supply of of headset microphones, and we can loan them. We we we have no ability to loan, equipment. Although we we did when we first needed to go to remote broadcasting, we we did, receive the, a donation of 10 iPads, which were very useful. But we found out very quickly that people have their own technology at their end, but they did need the quality microphone.
Brett Johnson [00:42:52]:
Mhmm. K.
Carol Ventresca [00:42:59]:
Brett, you know, it seems that no matter what is going on and how many questions we ask, we always it just flies by our time with our guests. Just flies by.
Mark Jividen [00:43:10]:
We've been up to 45 minutes now.
Carol Ventresca [00:43:11]:
And and and, Mark, you know what? Brett Brett Brett's gonna take this out. But, he didn't mention that he and I have a contest going on who can bring most guests onto the, onto the program. And and I don't know. I've always kind of been but I think he's sort of surging here with the contacts that he's bringing to
Brett Johnson [00:43:30]:
the As soon as she said, oh, there's a Mark Jivettin over yes. Contact him. Drop my name. I'm sure he'll wanna be on the podcast. Oh, there
Mark Jividen [00:43:37]:
he comes. Absolutely. No no problem at all, and we can do it on some regular basis. And there may be, you know, there may be a quid pro quo here. We do, you know, local programming, local interview programming at 11 o'clock many days, and we'd be more than happy if you'd like to come on our program and tell folks about what you do and, you know, why they might wanna tune in and or or subscribe to your podcast.
Carol Ventresca [00:44:04]:
We'd love to. Wonderful. Absolutely. Thanks for the invitation. Exactly. So before we close out, we always ask our our guests, for their last words of wisdom. Anything that we may have forgotten to talk about, you wanna make sure that the audience hears about voice core, or just, some thoughts on your end. And, Dana, why don't you start us out?
Dana Sims [00:44:25]:
So there are 2 things in particular that I think your listeners should know. Voicecorps is so proud of our volunteer pool. And with technology changing such as it is, AI has become rampant in many spaces. It's hard to watch a reel or a video on Instagram or YouTube and not hear an AI voice, you don't hear that on voice core. And I really believe that that brings that comfort of talking to a friend into our listeners' home. And that is so very important as we have spoken about isolation and really what the value of voice core is, it's not just the material that they're hearing. It's not just the news or the ads. It is someone that is a friend that they can look forward to hearing from every day.
Dana Sims [00:45:30]:
And the second piece is knowing, as Mark had mentioned, who's listening to us. Selfishly as marketing and development, understanding and being able to tell the very real stories of our listeners, it will help create the funding for even more opportunities for voice cord to expand programs, to expand services, to provide all of the robust opportunities that technology and advances can possibly bring so that we can make the user experience, the listener experience, what it should be and to not just keep up with the times but outpace and to make sure that we are doing the core essence of what voice core is and it is to bring information equity. It is to bring information to those that are unable to access physical print materials. So let us know you're listening, please.
Carol Ventresca [00:46:35]:
Wonderful. Thank you. Mark, your last words of wisdom.
Mark Jividen [00:46:38]:
Well, I would just can, I would just, reiterate what she has just said? I, you know, I retired once from the the business and got this opportunity, you know, to come to Voice Corps, and our volunteers may may have the same idea. But I'm here to make an impact. Wanna make an impact in folks' lives and really help them. We'd like your support, and, you know, and the volunteerism volunteerism. Is that it? To help us make an impact. We appreciate all the support we get both financially and, and psychologically for those out there that support us.
Brett Johnson [00:47:18]:
Oh, good. Many thanks to our expert guests, Mark Jividen, executive director of Voicecorps and Dana Sims, marketing and development director, both joining us today. Listeners, thank you for joining us. We're gonna you're gonna find the contact information and resources we discussed in the podcast in our show notes as well as on our website at looking forward our way.com. And we are looking forward to hearing your feedback on this or any of our other podcast episodes.